Conference calls allow multiple participants to join a telephone call and may involve the sharing of audio, video, and/or web resources. A conference call may also be referred to as a teleconference. Scheduling conference calls, joining conference calls, participating in conference calls, and the like, can be broadly referred to as conferencing.
Conferencing has become especially important for businesses as it enables them to reduce travel costs by allowing workers from different locations to participate in meetings. A typical business conference call may include an audio call that is coordinated with sharing of a presentation or document via the Internet or another computer network. The audio portion of the call may be carried over a conventional public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or through the use of a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. Other resources such as video and web are typically provided via a computer network such as the Internet. In most systems the management of these resources is performed by a conference bridge. A conference bridge is a machine that links telephone calls and enables the sharing of other resources (e.g., video and/or web). The conference bridge may also provide other conferencing services such as audio and/or video recording.
Although there are many different conferencing systems and many different ways to join or participate in a conference call, a typical scheduled conference call includes an assignment of a conference ID and an assignment of one or more access codes by a conference bridge. The conference ID is used by the conference bridge to identify the conference. The access codes are used in a manner analogous to passwords. Different access codes may be used to control different access levels or privileges. The conference ID and one or more access codes are typically provided to each participant that is invited to participate in a conference call. At the scheduled time, each participant may call-in to the conference bridge and provide the conference ID and access code. The conference bridge verifies the information and then connects the participant to the identified conference call.
Due to the increasing importance of conferencing, methods are continuously desired to improve conferencing services and enhance user experience.